Everyone who continues to doubt the Thunder will look foolish when they raise the trophy in June

[carlquincy]

Weird thread. Aren't they the favs to win the whole thing this year?

[sikma42]

OKC fans always mad nobody roots for their weird team. Despite all the talent, one of the worst teams to watch.


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[ORLMagicGirl15]

Western playoffs are a beast. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in the finals or if they lose in the first round.

[tsherkin]

Weird thread. They are among a short list of teams expected to challenge for the title.

[bkkrh]

The doubt for them reminds me of the people who doubted the 2015 Warriors and, to a lesser extent, the 2023 Nuggets. All the doubters will look foolish when they walk through the West mostly unscathed. Only a healthy Celtics team with Porzingis can stop this monstrous Thunder team. But the odds of Porzingis being healthy are incredibly unlikely.

Way to come out and take a stand, with eight games left in the season, and OKC with a 14 game lead!

Gutsy call, backing the favorite! I can understand why you waited before giving us your risky hot take.

Especially since the majority of people had them as favorites to come out the West since preseason.

[-Luke-]

Weird thread. Aren't they the favs to win the whole thing this year?

Always a good tactic. Making up a statement no one made and when the oppositive comes true, faulting the people who didn't make the statement and therefore didn't exists.

Now before someone finds counterexamples, there's possibly a handful of people on the internet who doubt that OKC are elite level contenders, but 99.99% of basketball fans do not doubt it. So weird thread indeed.

[Tony15]

OKC along with CLE & BOS are the clear title contenders….the former two are in “show me” territory because we haven’t seen it, but I don’t see many acting like either of them aren’t favorites.


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[Ayt]

The Celtics are the team to beat until they get beaten, imo. The big advantage they have is a wealth of playoff experience - a title run, a Finals run in 2022, a myriad of ECF finals runs going back to 2017 for Brown and 2018 for Tatum. On top of that Jrue has a title run with the Bucks under his belt and Horford has a ton of experience with the Hawks under his belt including an ECF run in 2015. In comparison, I think Caruso is the only player on the Thunder who's been past the second round.

Obviously the Thunder are on the short list of teams that can win it all this year - like, they're really freaking good - but I wouldn't take Boston lightly.

You aren't wrong. All of that experience for Boston is huge. On the flip side, sometimes a lack of experience can be a benefit for a team like OKC. They don't feel the pressure of having failed previously. They got knocked out in the 2nd round last year, yes, but that was the first playoff experience for almost all of them outside of Shai, who only had minimal playoff experience prior to last season. Playoff pressure can be very high if you've failed multiple seasons in a row, but I doubt OKC even look at last season as a failure.

OKC could very well go into this postseason with the attitude that there is no added pressure, let's just go out and ball like we have all season. These young guys don't know any better. Ball out like we have been, win the chip. What pressure?

[guynumber45]

Read on Twitter

Just another amazing stat by this incredibely impressive squad

[LeBronSpaghetti]

Boston has just as much to prove as OKC and if they meet in the finals it would be just as much a “prove it” moment for them as it would be for OKC. Boston will likely have to beat some real, healthy contenders if they want to win this year which isn’t something they’ve proven they can do yet.

[1bigfan13]

This is still the youngest team in the league so hopefully they can handle the pressure... Insane that OKC is at the point where its finals or bust with an average age of 25~

Ideally have to win one of these next two seasons before all of these extensions get handed out

They are still a very young team but they're mature.

People often assume a person's age = their maturity level. I think we all know that isn't true across the board.

I'm sure in all our personal lives we've ran across a 20 year old who presents and carries themselves as if they were in their mid-30s or someone who is in their 30s who still has a childish, immature mindset.

I think most people point to the Thunder's antics during postgame interviews and assume the team is still too immature. But I'll counter by pointing out that when it comes to the actual "on the clock stuff", e.g., their work habits; preparedness for their opponents; steady/no panic mentality when they fall behind by double digits; etc., this team is as mature as they come.

I look at the interview stuff as a group of friends goofing off after work. Nothing more than simple home/office code switching that most of us do.

[1bigfan13]

Weird thread. They are among a short list of teams expected to challenge for the title.

Yeah, I think some people put too much weight into the opinions of "entertainers" like Shannon Sharpe.

Most real NBA fans and analysts have the Thunder as the favorites to come out of the west.

[ITYSL]

Thinking that other teams might have a chance of beating them in the playoffs is not doubting them. It's simply realizing that there are several good teams that they could face come the postseason.

The Thunder will be rightfully favored in any series this postseason. They're the Vegas favorites to win it all. That doesn't scream doubters to me.

The one thing that might be a factor is they may have to play more longer, harder foughter series to get to the Finals vs. whoever comes out of the East. But they're a young team so I don't think it matters much at all unless they sustain multiple injuries while their Finals opponent stays healthy.

[Upperclass]

Prob depends on who Refs their games

[HMFFL]

Let's see how they fare against Boston in the Finals.

No doubt about it.
People act as if OKC is an automatic to win the Championship. Boston isncrusijg and just waiting for the season to really begin.

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[slick_watts]

another three game winning streak by the lakers before the season ends, and we'll have a few threads on the front page ballsplaining how they can beat the thunder because of experience.

[OverAndOut]

Boston.

[MavsDirk41]

Prob depends on who Refs their games

They are 62-12 right now and i dont think its cause the refs. They are the best defensive team in the nba. Typically the best defensive team makes the finals.

[QingJames]

I guess it’ll depend on if they’re allowed to foul on every defensive possession in the playoffs like they are in the regular season. If they can keep mugging guys they’ll win the title. If they get fouls called against them like the other 29 teams they’ll be in Cancun by May.

[f4p]

It actually seems weird they've trailed for over 11 minutes per game.